How do I use Scheduling Assistant for Outlook 2010/2013/2016?

How do I use Scheduling Assistant for Outlook 2010/2013/2016?

Scheduling Assistant is a tool in Outlook that helps you find the best time to schedule a meeting or room usage by displaying times when a person or room is busy or free.

In order to use Scheduling Assistant:

Open Outlook.

Under the Home tab, within the Respond group, click the Meeting option.

Under the Meeting tab, within the Show group, click the Scheduling Assistant button.

This will open the Scheduling Assistant window.

Key features of Scheduling Assistant:

You will be able to view your current obligations and meetings/appointments on the Scheduling Assistant screen. Availability will be listed as either Busy, Tentative, Out of Office, No Information, or Outside of working hours.

Use the Add Attendees... button to add more people or entities to the meeting(s).

Use the Add Rooms... button to add a room or several rooms to the display to see if they are occupied and also claim a time frame to use them.

Use the Options button to configure Scheduling Assistant to Show Only My Working Hours, Show Calendar Details, and to Refresh Free/Busy.

The Room Finder pane on the right-hand side of the screen gauges room availability as Good, Fair, or Poor, and lists any available rooms. It also displays Suggested times that are the best times to use the room(s) and how many there are available.

When something has been scheduled, the starting time of the event is denoted by a green vertical line, while the ending time is denoted by a red vertical line.

For a more thorough explanation of Scheduling Assistant and Microsoft's official tutorials on how to use it, please navigate to:

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Posted by Jordan Hamblen 2017-09-25 07:27:18

-Verified content is accurate-Verified links work-Reviewed kb tags

Posted by Leonord Joseph 2017-04-23 15:01:46

- verified that all steps in the kb are still accurate- modified the link to open in a new window

Posted by Joseph Short 2017-01-05 14:40:19

Removed italics from intro; minor changes for clarity and conciseness; minor changes in punctuation; updated all screenshots for new version of Outlook and per standard; removed URL for Office 2010; added outlook as kb tag

Posted by Kurt Runnels 2016-10-17 11:58:12

Fixed formatting and bullet lists

Posted by Nicholas Alexander 2016-08-23 17:23:46

*Added 2016 to the title, as the process is the same

Posted by Nicholas Alexander 2016-06-05 21:02:08

*Removed redundant large image that was causing side-scrolling

Posted by Nicholas Alexander 2016-02-17 14:27:11

*Verified info accurate

Posted by Mark Miller 2015-08-10 10:35:49

Reviewed for accuracy.

Posted by Brandon Adkins 2015-03-30 19:53:34

Verified accurate. Changed title to include Office 2013.

Posted by Korrey Alderman 2014-05-25 13:51:26

Verified that this is still viable for Outlook 2013

Posted by 2012-08-29 05:43:16

This was very helpful. I will need to this in the future. Thank you.

Posted by 2012-08-29 05:31:41

Yes, this was helpful,because I will know pretty much how to do this when I need it in the future. Thankyou.

Posted by 2012-08-29 05:08:32

This was handy to know. Thank you.

Posted by Christopher Parks 2012-04-20 10:38:38

Chris P. From the IT HelpDesk:

* changed the title to be in the form of a question. * Html hr tag was added. * Reviewed grammar and all links.

Posted by Christopher Parks 2012-04-11 09:38:30

Chris P. from the IT HelpDesk:

This article has been Published, Marked Public, and Updated.
The final screenshots were added, grammar and spelling were refined, and I included all of the needed html tags.

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